I know this is late, but totally fine to give him other milks. Once Grey was around one I started leaving other milks in cups around for him to drink from. It didn't replace any breastfeeding at the time, but I wanted him to try different milks to see what he might like.

when do i stop leaking? i can't remember with tzipi, but the milk fountain act is getting a bit old. it was probably the worst part of travelling... the very real possibility that i was either going to spray someone (maybe myself) in the face, and/or end up with a giant wet spot down my shirt. i had nursing pads, but they just aren't keeping up.

I stopped leaking during the day around 10 weeks. I still have the issue overnight though which is annoying.I really liked the lilypads when I was leaking a ton because they put pressure on the nipple and actually stopped the leak rather then just absorb the overflow. I DID however develop thrush and I kind of blame those lilypads because it does kind of keep the area moist the whole time, so I started using them for only a few hours for a trip out rather then all day every day.

I'm 3 months and 1 day postpartum and still have nighttime leaking. But in the day it's much much better the last week or so. Like if tw is on one side, there might be a little drippage on the other side, but not soak the pads wet.

So I was telling my pediatrician today about Giles, shall we call it, infrequent pooping (he has had maybe 4 dirty diapers in the last 6 weeks and all of them were because I gave him a suppository after he has strained and groaned and grunted unsuccessfully for days) and she immediately asked about MY hydration status. Which is abysmal. I do not drink. She said that when you are dehydrated the body pulls more from the fat stores to keep the supply up and the milk ratio of water to fat is then different and can lead to poop issues for the breastfed baby. Kellymom didn't seem exactly to confirm that - but I called my LC and she agreed with the pedi. I feel pretty terrible for constipating my poor innocent because I can't bother myself to drink enough! Anyway I found that interesting as I sit here and sip on my water like a good mommy.

Oh, my goodness, annasrobbie -- I've never heard of that, either -- I'm sure that's quite unusual, so try not to feel too terrible for not knowing. I was never a big drinker myself until I was nursing while pregnant -- up until then, I was hardly ever thirsty, so I hardly ever drank anything. (I don't remember drinking much during my first pregnancy or when I was breastfeeding B. I remember carrying a water bottle with me when I was pregnant with R and this carnal thirst hitting me when I was nursing in tandem.)

Annasrobbie, just wanted to throw out that flax oil worked wonders with Freya's constipation. She took it straight (eww) for awhile, then we mixed it with soy yogurt. We did use suppositories a few times too but then saw flax recommended on Dr Sears site, I think it was. I can't remember...is he eating any solids yet? Some foods you can feed to help things along too...plums,peaches, avocado.

Try and drink more if course, but don't fret too much as your hydration may not have been the cause at all.

I will look into the flax oil - thanks!We are going to give him a little puree today to see how he takes it - I made some steamed prunes and pureed them up but I think the texture is too much for a "first" try so we are going to go with some storebought (got for christmas as a gentle nudge to start that poor starving baby on food!) pears. I am excited to see his little face.

Yeah Crabby, I really just am not very thirsty. When I was pregnant I made myself try to drink the recommended amount but was not very successful. I do admit though I haven't been drinking much at all at work. I work at a government facility and do not like to drink the water there. So if I run out of the water I carry in (I TRY to bring 48 oz, but often forget and have more like 12) I usually won't drink anything else unless I am REALLY thirsty and then I walk to the little store nearby and buy some water. The number I times they announce overhead that "the water is now safe to drink" when I never heard any announcement that the water was NOT safe to drink is crazy. Sometimes when I go to wash my hands the water is BROWN. So disgusting.

Just realized that we made it to the 6 month Silver Boobies level! Woo hoo! It is totally amazing to me that my body made and supported this little guy for nearly 10 months in the womb and then another 6 outside of it. He had his first non-mother's milk food yesterday, some pureed pears that he hated, and then in his desire to get that horrible taste from his mouth he accepted a boobie to nurse on for a few minutes during daylight hours which hasn't happened since he was 10 weeks old. I need a silver boobie badge to wear now - I bet they sell them on etsy ;)

4 and a half years here, with only 3 days off (2 of those days in the past week, part of me is all, it's too soon! and part of me is all, he's over 2-1/2, he should be able to get to sleep without the boobie!). Do I get a pair of bronze boobs to hang on my wall?

Mastitis update: I am mostly better in terms of breast related symptoms! And I seem to finally be producing milk again. I managed to pump 2.5 oz out of a single side yesterday, which is not as much as normal but after that day when I pumped 3 oz in the whole entire day, it seems like a fortune.

I did end up buying a can of formula but didn't end up needing to use it. I feel a bit better having it though-- he is still so milk-reliant and I'm about to start a school schedule that will have me gone from him 14 hrs straight twice a week and 9 hours once a week and I feel like it is going to be really hard to keep up my stash of milk to cover that much time.

*sigh* I am really starting to feel like it would be nice to, well, maybe not fully wean V, but to cut down on nursing. Most of the things I'm reading suggest phasing out a session or two but here's the thing: V isn't on any kind of schedule and we don't have N incidences of nursing every day--it's more like a continuous thing sometimes! Pretty much if I'm sitting down she'll come and be trying to help herself, and if I say no I get scratched and clawed at. I just don't even know where to begin. I've tried to get her to take more solids, and she is/does, but she doesn't drink any kind of substantial amount of soy or other milk, so it's not like she's using that as a substitute.

Anyway I know part of it is just that I'm having a bad day, but I would just like my body to myself for more of the day. If we're out and about she can easily go many hours without needing to nurse as long as she has a steady stream of solid food, but if we're home/in any kind of inactivity she'll pounce.

Annak, I'm feeling a similar way. I hadn't expected to want to cut down on nursing this soon (Sven just turned 1) but I'm starting to resent it. It makes me sad to think about and I have no idea how to start weaning or dropping nursing sessions. He doesn't take a milk substitute regularly either, and often I'm not "together" enough to provide well-planned meals so nursing becomes a fallback. He only nurses three times in the day (wakeup, nap, bedtime) but a ton at night. My big problem is that he bites! All the time! And I've read every article on biting and nothing helps. It makes me really angry and I feel like our nursing relationship has soured now that I have to try to control my emotions and inevitable outburst of pain to keep from scaring him, and I'm always bracing for a bite and really get no enjoyment from the nursing relationship any more. I had hoped to nurse until two but I'm just feeling down about the whole situation.

Do you think it would help to not control your emotions about it? The only way we got Malka to stop biting us was to shout in pain and then put her down away from us. That really upset her and she seemed to get that what she had done was just not gonna fly. (We picked her up within 20 seconds and soothed her, but we let her be upset about our being upset.)

So while nusing in bed last night, I was reading Inez this book called And I Love You which (unsurpringly) says the phrase "I love you" repeatedly. She was really wound up and goofy and started jumping on the bed saying "I love you, cat! I love you, balloon" and whatever else to the things in the pictures. So I said "I love YOU, Inez!" trying to get her to say it back to me (she tells her dad and her mum mum that she loves them, but not me yet). She stopped jumping, grinned at me and said "I love... NURSE!" and then fell over giggling. Sigh.